Printing press fountain



Feb. 20, 1940. H. c. BEHRENS PRINTING PRESS FOUNTAIN Filed Aug. 16; 1957ATTORNEYS.

Patented Fa. 20, 1940 UNITE sires rarest OFFlCE PRENTING PRESS FOUNTAINHerbert G. lBehrens, Battle Creek, Mich, assignor to Duplex PrintingPress Company, Battle Creek. Mich.

Appiication August 16, 1937, Serial. No. 159,240

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in printing press fountains.

particularly to fountains therefor.

brought up for any given column on the matter being printed may becontrolled individually. Heretofore several types of adjustment havebeen used. The simplest one comprises a series of I screws which beardown against the blade which resilient and biased in opposition to thescrews. By turning any one screw down it is possible to regulate thespacing of the blade and the roller the individual screws on the bladeto effect the adjustment. This is inconvenientand it is de sirable tohave meansfor adjusting the screws located at a point remote from thescrews such as the end of the roller. screws has been accomplishedthrough the use of bevel gears or worm gearing on the screws operated byrotatable shafts extending out to the end of the roller. These devicesare impractical and require considerable skill and experience in operation because of the fact that in the rods employed considerabletwisting occurs before the rotation of the rod operates the gearing. Theamount of this twisting varies with the length of the rods so that it isnecessary for an operator to take this into account when adjusting thefountain. More rotation of the rod is required for adjusting the screwsat the center of the roller than is required for those at the end of theroller to obtain the same adjustment, and until an operator learns byexperience the variations involved, it is most difficult to obtain asatisfactory adjustment. It is obvious that due to lack of space and theexpense involved, it is not practicable or desirable to use rods whichwill not twist on rotation.

The objects of this invention are:

First, to produce fountain controlling means Remote control of these(Cl. 10i--365) which eliminate the difficulties above referred to.

Second, to produce such a device in which the fountain blade is adjustedfrom a remote point such as the end of the fountain roller.

Third, to provide such a device which is simple 5 and positive inoperation and may be made most inexpensively.

Fourth, to produce such a device in which extremely light connectingmembers may be employed and in which a given amount of adjustment may bemade at any point on the blade by a given manipulation of the remoteadjusting mechanism.

Fifth, to provide such a device in which ex tremely fine adjustments maybe efiected.

Further objects and advantages pertaining to details and economies ofconstruction and. operation will appear from the description to follow.The invention is pointed out in the claim. Preferred embodiments of myinvention are illustrated in the accompanying drawing-in which:

1 is a broken front plan view of a printing press inking -fountainembodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a detail sectional view taken on line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 isa detail sectional view of a different form of my invention.

Fig. i is a front plan detail view showing the invention of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a front plan view of a still different form of my invention.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawing, l is a fountain inking rollerhaving a spring blade 2 which is conventional. This blade is a springblade and the resiliency of the blade is such that the blade tends tomove away from the roller when unrestrained. The roller is mounted insuitable bearings 3 which have a frame 4 sup porting the bearings andblade. Disposed along the blade, a blade bar 5 is provided carrying aplurality of bearings 6 having mounted therein the plungers 6| which areslidably mounted for axial movement in said bearings. The plungers 6!engage the blade at spaced points and pressure exerted on theblade bythe plungers varies the spacing betwen the blade 2 and the roller I.

Pivoted to the blade bar 5 are a plurality of cams l in the form oflevers 8 having projecting plunger engaging arms 9. Suitable pivots I!)are provided for these cams and the cams are so disposed that if theyare pivoted in a counterclockwise direction as viewed at the left ofFig. 1, pressure is exerted to force the blade 2 closer to the roller I.

adjusting the blade.

A plurality of nuts II are provided and wires l2 screw threaded as at l3to engage the nuts II are provided. These wires are attached pivotal- 1yeach to a cam i at a point M which is spaced from the pivot of the cam.It will be noted that if tension is exerted on these Wires l2 or tensionmembers, the tendency is to urge the cam 1 toward the plunger 8 to forcethe blade 2 toward the roller i. If the tension is released, the springof the blade 2 tends to take up any lost motion and the wires or tensionmembers I2 are kept under tension at all times. The nuts I! are locatedon a suitable board or bracket 15 and are provided with fixed bearingsI6 which are so disposed that a rotation of the nut II on the fixedbearing is will exert tension on the tension member or wire 12. It willbe apparent that all of the wires l2 may extend to one end of the rollerl or that the wires may extend to both ends as is indicated in Fig. 1.are thus conveniently located so that it is unnecessary to reach inalong the blade to effect adjustment. It will be apparent, too, that byproperly proportioning the cams I it is possible to obtain a very fineadjustment of the plungers B! and that it is possible to employ veryfine screw threads as at l3 on the rods l2 to permit extremely fineadjustment of the blade.

in the form of invention shown in Figs. 3 and 4, a blade bar m4 isprovided. Cams Nil are pivoted on pivots H83 in a manner similar to thecams l in the form of invention shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The earns 58?diiler from the cams l in that a rounded surface me is provided for Anequalizer pad or block I! is provided for each cam. These equalizer padsare spaced along the blade and tend to equalize the pressure exerted byrotation of the cams Mil. Tension members or wires H2 are provided andby exerting tension on the members M2, the cams Mil are rotated so thatthe blade Hill is forced downwardly against its spring action toward theroller Hill. In the form of invention shown in Fig. 5, the cam 263'!which is substantially identical with the cam Nil is mounted on theblade bar 2% with a All of the adjusting means pivot 2"). The roundedsurface 209 of this cam 201' works directly on the spring blade 202instead of through an equalizer pad or block such as the equalizer pador block i! of Figs. 3 and 4. A tension member M2 is provided and theexertion of tension on the tension member or wire 2! 2 rotates the cam20'. forcing the blade 2'02 downwardly.

In the form of invention shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, the means forexerting tension on the tension members may be identical with the meansshown in Figs. 1 and2.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

In a printing press having a'iountain roll and a spring blade thereforhaving a roll engaging edge extending longitudinally of the roll andadapted to be adjusted at different points along its length, thecombination of a plurality of cams spaced from one another along saidblade each pivoted adjacent said blade on an axis perpendicular to theroll engaging edge of the blade and in operative relationthereto to movea portion of the blade in opposition to the spring of the blade onpivoting of the cam whereby the pivoting oi the cam. adjusts thatportion of the blade adjacent said cam, a plurality of tension membersextending along the roll to the end thereof each having one endpivotally connected directly to one of said cams at a point spaced fromits pivot, having its free end at the end of the roll screw threaded toengage a nut, a plurality of nuts each in direct screw threadedengagement with the free end of a tension member, and a panel adjacentthe end of the roll hav ing a plurality of thrust bearings one for eachof said nuts disposed to hold said nuts against movement from the end ofsaid roll along the roll, whereby screwing of a nut on a tension memherand against its thrust hearing will exert tension on the cam to whichthe tension member is connected to turn it about its axis in oppositionto the spring of the blade to adjust the position of the blade.

HERBERT C. BEHRENS.

